"Never before has the mystery and glory of Faubourg Tremé been brought together in one volume. For the knowledgeable insider, Michael Crutcher’s research conquers familiar myths with facts, and elevates other myths to the status of verifiable truth. For those students who are unfamiliar with this unique American neighborhood, Crutcher makes a cogent argument in clear prose for why this place is worthy of attention, study, and celebration."
—Lolis Eric Elie, writer for the television program Treme

Description

Across Rampart Street from the French Quarter, the Faubourg Tremé neighborhood is arguably the most important location for African American culture in New Orleans. Closely associated with traditional jazz and “second line” parading, Tremé is now the setting for an eponymous television series created by David Simon (best known for his work on The Wire).

Michael Crutcher argues that Tremé’s story is essentially spatial—a story of how neighborhood boundaries are drawn and take on meaning and of how places within neighborhoods are made and unmade by people and politics. Tremé has long been sealed off from more prominent parts of the city, originally by the fortified walls that gave Rampart Street its name, and so has become a refuge for less powerful New Orleanians. This notion of Tremé as a safe haven—the flipside of its reputation as a “neglected” place—has been essential to its role as a cultural incubator, Crutcher…

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